A Knock at the Door
by Dragonheim
Summary: Noel and Hillary's casual date goes terribly wrong after a strange visitor appears at their doorstep, and Stan and Sandy are witness to the whole event. Oneshot.


-1A KNOCK AT THE DOOR

A fic by Wolfenheim. Boy, I haven't written anything for a while. This one will be better than that last one, I swear.

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Stan was sitting with Sandy in her cage. Noel was visiting with Hillary for the night, and he had brought Stan with him, since his hamster had nothing better to do anyways. Not that he ever did. His favorite pastime when he was at home was spying on pretty ham-gals from his window. Of course, Noel had no idea what Stan would be staring at for so long, drooling with his face pressed to the glass, so he just left him be.

Their humans had just gone downstairs, and Sandy's cage was upstairs in Hillary's bedroom, so the two hamsters were now free to roam around and do what they pleased. They left her cage.

"Hey, sis, got anything exciting in here?" Stan asked, sniffing around.

"I was thinking we could check out Hillary's trophy collection! It's right up there, in the cabinet," Sandy said.

Stan made a face. "Trophies? That's like, the most boring thing ever."

"Fine then, be that way," she replied snidely. "Find something better to do."

About a million things came to mind, but none were ones that he dared share with his sister. " Umm … do you have any games? Movies?"

"Uh, no movies, because there's no TV in here. The only TV in the house is downstairs in the living room. No games, either, if you're talking about board games."

"I have a better game then," he said with a gleam in his eye. "It's called _drive our owners crazy_."

"Stan, no!" Sandy answered. "Let's just leave them alone."

"Come on! It'll be fun!" he told her. He was already heading down the stairs.

"Stan! _Stan!_ Ugh!" She showed her displeasure with him. "Come _on_ Stan! We wouldn't want anyone bugging us if we were doing something!"

"Cheer up, sis. They probably won't even care."

"Yes they will! I know it!" she retorted. "I'm not doing whatever you're planning."

"Aw, come on! It's not going to be _that _bad." he tried to explain.

"I'm still not doing it."

They reached the living room. Their owners were both on the couch, watching a movie. Hillary was resting her head on Noel's shoulder.

Stan motioned for his sister to go with him. "Come on, sis, let's go." She rolled her eyes, but followed anyways.

He led her to the leg of the couch, and told her to hide under it. He eyed Noel's glass of ice water that was sitting on the floor.

"Don't you dare!" Sandy called after him.

"Ha ha ha, watch the master at work!" He looked up at the humans to make sure they weren't looking, then made a quick dash out and knocked the glass over on Noel's foot. The cold water startled Noel, who jerked quickly, accidentally elbowing Hillary's chin.

"_Owww_!" she yelped. Noel looked over and realized what he did.

"Wha- … oh my gosh, sorry Hillary! I-"

"What was that about?" she asked, clearly annoyed.

He looked embarrassed. "Sorry … I must've accidentally kicked my water over or something."

"Well that don't mean you go smack me!" She laughed it off.

"Alright, then," Noel said, relieved that she wasn't too mad. "Do I need to go call 911, or do you think you'll live?" he joked.

"Ha, no way," she said "Now rewind the movie back to where we missed it, 'k?" Meanwhile, Stan was in hysterics under the chair. Sandy was furious.

"See, Sandy? No harm done!" he said through laughs. "They're not mad."

"No harm done? Hillary's got a bruise now all thanks to you!" she seethed.

Stan came to his senses and became aware of how mad his sister really was. "Geez, sis. She said she was fine, now quit freaking out!"

"I'm still mad at you, Stan."

"Well, I didn't give her the bruise anyways. Noel did. Get mad at him."

She ignored the comment. "Whatever. Just don't do anything else, okay?"

"Okay … not." He scampered up the leg of the couch.

"HEY!" she yelled. "WHAT DID I JUST SAY?"

"Not listening!" he teased. He was standing on the top of the couch. He hadn't figured out what he was going to do next, but he figured he'd better think up something before Sandy came after him. He looked back down at her and stuck out his tongue.

"You are going to regret it, Stan!" she shouted angrily.

He was about to jump to Noel's shoulder, just to get out of Sandy's view, but before he could make the leap, Noel put his arm up on the back of the couch and knocked Stan off. Right on top of Sandy, too, which didn't cheer up her mood much.

"Nice catch, sis," he said.

"GET OFF!" She pushed him away.

Stan looked back at her. "Come on, now, have a sense of humor!" he said. "This'd be a lot more fun if you'd play along."

"Would you just leave them alone?" she asked. "Please?"

"Oh, alright." he complied. "I just don't see why you have to get so mad."

"You are so retarded sometimes!"

He decided it was best not to push her buttons anymore, and let the fire inside her burn down before he went and did anything else. He dug through his mind to pick words that wouldn't tee her off. "Okay. What do you want to do, then?"

She smiled. "Let's go up on top of that shelf way up there and finish watching the movie with them," she said, cooling off.

Stan really wanted to say how much he didn't want to do that, since they weren't even there for the beginning of it, but did his best and kept it to himself. "Alright. I'm game for that."

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About halfway through the movie, Stan was leaning on Sandy, fast asleep. She didn't care, she was too into the movie to say anything.

Hillary was also leaning on Noel. She looked up at him. "Hey, Noel, can you go get us something to eat in the kitchen? I don't know about you, but I'm hungry."

"Sure," he answered. "What do you want?"

"Go check if I have any chips left. I'm not sure if I finished them off yet."

"'Kay, I'll look." He got off the couch and stretched briefly, then walked over to the kitchen.

"Wait," she called after him. "Make some popcorn, too." He nodded.

Hillary paused the movie while he left. Only a few seconds passed before she heard a knock at the door. She didn't want to get up, but she did anyways. "_Who could be here at this hour?"_ she thought to herself. It was only about 9:00, but it was already dark out. She opened the door to a businessman, or at least he looked that way, for he dawned a rather nice gray jacket, striped tie, and hat.

"Hello. I'm going door-to-door, telling people around the neighborhood of an important issue that you might be concerned about right now. Mind if I come in?"

She didn't think twice. "Sure. Have a seat on the couch."

"Who's here?" Noel shouted from the kitchen.

"Mind your own business, Noel!" she yelled back

The man looked to the kitchen, then back at her. "Is that your husband?"

"Husband? N-no, he's just my boyfriend." She blushed like crazy. "So what were you here for again?"

He walked over to the coat rack and hung up his jacket and hat. "Oh, I just wanted to tell you this important information about what's been happening lately around your part of town. You see, there's been a young man going about, raping young women like you. I thought you'd maybe like to ask some questions."

"What? I mean … that's terrible," she said. The man seemed suspicious to her all of a sudden.

"Yes. I thought you might want to know what he looked like or what to expect, just incase he ever came to your door looking for you."

Hillary eyed him warily. "Oh yah? What does he look like, then?"

The man stood by the coat rack. "Well, he'll just come up to your door, like a normal person. He'll be wearing a gray jacket … maybe a hat … and a striped tie …" A smirk appeared on his face.

"Just like … the ones … you ha-" She didn't have time to finish her statement when the man jumped on top of her, pinning her to the couch. She tried to scream, tried to get Noel to notice her, but he muffled her scream underneath his hand.

"Now, now, if you cooperate with me, nothing real bad's gonna happen to you tonight, my pretty." He took out a small handgun. He smacked the butt of the gun across her face, then quickly got up and locked the door to the kitchen, preventing Noel from coming back out.

By this time, Sandy had realized there was something going on, and peered off the edge of the shelf they were sitting on. She saw the man with the gun, and Hillary, who was hurt on the couch. Her eyes widened.

"Stan! Stan! Wake up!" she shook him awake.

"W-what's going on?" he asked, still half-asleep.

"Just come look!" She dragged him over to the edge to watch what events were about to take place …

Hillary shrieked once more, and this time Noel heard her. He was already trying to open up the door. The loud banging was heard from the living room, and he continued to shout for her. "Hillary! _HILLARY!"_

The man went over to Hillary, grabbed her arm, and pulled her up. "Now, girl, you gotta open up this door. When he comes out, I want you to make him go in this here closet." He motioned to an open closet nearby, which he hid in. "Don't do no funny stuff, or I'll shoot ya both dead. Got it?" She was breathing rapidly, but managed to answer "yes" through a steady flow of tears.

She slowly opened up the door to the kitchen and let Noel out. He grabbed her shoulders. "What happened? Are you okay? Where's he go?" he was asking her, but she could hardly get an answer out through her terrified crying. She hugged him, showing her appreciation of him being there for her right then. He blushed, but he knew something was still not right.

The two hamsters watching from above knew for sure. Stan wanted to go down and tell his human where the man was hiding, so he could just make him go away and leave them alone, but he knew he couldn't. Sandy was silently crying, holding back her tears of fright just as Hillary had been doing.

The man had had enough of waiting. He jumped from the closet and tackled Noel to the ground, and wrapped his arm around his neck, suffocating him. Noel tried to pry his arm away, but so far it was no use. The man took out his gun again and pointed it at Noel, then at Hillary.

"Don't come any closer! I'll kill ya!" She could only stand by and watch as Noel was being choked to death. He was now seconds from passing out, but he would not go without a fight. He bit the man's arm, causing him to shout in pain. He was distracted long enough for Noel to swipe the gun out of his hands and onto the floor. The man quickly leaped to the ground to recover his handgun, and Noel followed. It was a quick wrestle on the floor for it, but the man kicked Noel off of him and recovered the lost gun. Without hesitating, he pointed it at Noel and shot him through the stomach, sending him to the floor screaming in agonizing pain. He held his stomach where the bullet had torn through him.

Stan and Sandy were shocked beyond belief at this point. Stan especially. His human had just been shot, and was bleeding badly. He wasn't even sure if he was going to live or not, he had no knowledge of bullet wounds. All he knew was that it was bad … real bad.

"We gotta go do something, Sandy! We can't just let them take that!" he cried out.

"Yes, we can!" she answered. "We can't do anything, we're too weak. That guy will kill us faster than we can blink. No matter what, we gotta stay up here." She looked intently at Stan, making sure he understood. "It's for our own safety." He gulped, but agreed. They turned their attention back to the scene unfolding in front of their eyes.

The man had now made his way back over to Hillary, who was crying out for Noel. He grabbed her around the neck, and this time took out a switchblade and pressed it against her. "This is gonna be your last day on Earth, girl!" he sneered. The skin on her neck where he had pushed the knife up to had already begun to bleed.

Noel, on the other hand, was trying as hard as he could to get back to his feet. His breathing was labored. The bullet wound stung with pain, but he tried to ignore it. He had to. It was for Hillary.

He looked up and saw the man with the switchblade pressed to her neck. Suddenly, a fire of rage burned deep within him. A primal rage. He clenched his teeth, and withstanding the pain in his stomach, got up like nothing had happened and jumped upon the man's back, taking him down. Noel grabbed the knife from his hand and tossed it to the other side of the room, out of hand and out of reach.

"_No!"_ the man yelled. It was too late for him. Noel was on top of him, his weight pinning him to the hard floor. Then, with all his might, Noel reeled back his arm and punched his face hard. It wasn't over, either. Noel kept dealing out blows, each one just as strong as the last, and each one fueled by a deep hatred.

Finally, Noel stopped and got off. The man was weak, but tried to get up. As it turned out, Noel wasn't through with him yet. He threw him on his stomach, and put his knee squarely on his back to prevent him from getting up. He wrapped his own arm around the man's neck, pulled back and twisted. With one final motion, and a soft crack, the man was out cold. Noel dropped him back to the floor. Overcome by the pain of his own wound, Noel passed out onto the floor.

Hillary could not believe what she had just witnessed. Of course, neither had Stan and Sandy, who were still watching from above them. Hillary slowly approached the man and kicked his gun away from him, and then kneeled by Noel. He was bleeding profusely, blood covering his hands, the floor, and the man who had attacked him. Another knock came at the door. This time, instead of a killer, came police and a team of paramedics. While Noel was taking on the attacker, Hillary had made her way over to the phone and called 911. There would be nothing to worry about anymore.

The nightmare was over.

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I hope you enjoyed my latest story. Once again, I went back to my roots of making another dark story that left you thinking.

Thank you for reading, and please review!


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